Darned Lexapro...

After some discussion with Renee last night at Stitch and Bitch, I found out that Lexapro can cause significant weight gain. I stepped on the scale this morning and I was up 2 pounds! Argh! I've been on Lexapro again since the beginning of this year and sure enough, that was when my weight gain started really bad. Things that make you go hmmm...

I would really like to take St. John's Wort instead, but it interacts with oral contraceptives and my endometriosis medicine...blah.

What am I to do? Who knows. I might go talk to my doctor about trying a new AD or something. I like how Lexapro works, but I'm always tired it seems and my weight has been going up, even though I've been on weight watchers and watching what I eat.

That's my little rant for today. I started a new crochet boatneck tee last night and I'm almost done with the front panel now. I should be done with that by the end of the day. That is the only advantage of scanning all day, but it is a good one. Speaking of scanning, lunch is over and I better get back to it...blah.

Knit on...

I love long weekends

I was looking forward to this three day weekend all month. It ended up being a four day weekend for me because I did something to my ankle on Friday at work and had to leave early and go see a doctor. My ankle just gave out on me and I went down. When I got back up, my leg was numb from the knee down. I figured this was probably not a good sign, so I hobbled off to the doctor. It's pretty sad, but the doctor remembered me from the last time I had been there (2 years ago). I had broken this same ankle by just tripping on a sidewalk on the local college campus. I still need to work on my excuse for breaking the ankle. People just don't believe me when I say I was chased by a rabid jaguar through the jungles of Brazil...

Anyways, I went to the doctor and she said that I had so badly injured the tendons and ligaments in my ankle that it would just keep doing this wonderful giving out thing. So I had two options...surgery to make them tighter, or wear an ankle brace from now on.

So this weekend was my first test of my new ankle brace...the numb leg was because I had pinched a nerve. The feeling came back within a day. DBF and I played disc golf on Saturday and Monday, went to the movies to see X-Men 3, went out to dinner on Sunday to celebrate his sister's birthday, and grilled out on Monday.

What, you want a knitting update? Do you think I had time to knit this weekend? I did knit a few rows, but that's all the knitting that I did. No purchases, no knitting, no completed projects. I was a lazy knitting slut this weekend. I was enjoying the 90 degree heat instead...blah.

When did it turn so hot here? It just became scorching within two days. It's supposed to be around 90 again today. What happened to Spring? Did it come and go in February? Oh well. That's what my AC system is for I guess.

So now I'm back at the office. Kathy is gone on vacation and this room looks very vacant. I'll probably be moved to another office before the end of this week. Welcome back to work. Tonight is Stitch and Bitch at least!

Knit on...

Ah, Friday

The end of the work week, the beginning of a long weekend. Friday is good. It would be even better if it were pay Friday, but I guess I can't be picky since I get a nice three day weekend. Last night we had some huge storms roll through the area. DBF and I were playing poker when they hit and I ran home in between the storms. I made it home, but I did get soaked on the way to my car. Blah.

I get home and my grandma and grandpa are out on the porch with a flashlight. No good can come of this, I decide in my mind. They rush me in and say that a man was running around the neighborhood and had scared the living daylights out of our neighbors in the back yard. The police came out and searched away, but my grandpa stayed out until at least 11 on the back porch, making sure the person didn't come back. Gotta love Grandpa :oP

Lots of lightning with this storm too. I don't sleep very much when lightning or storms are around, so I am dead tired this morning. I finally made it to bed about 2:30 this morning. At least I got almost 4 hours of sleep in before heading in to work.

And why am I even here at work? There is no one here. People called in sick to extend their long weekend. I really thought about doing that myself and I very well might take a half day today and go home and sleep. Blah. I got bored this morning though and decided to create an avatar for my blog. Here is the dumb thing:

I got it at: http://illustmaker.abi-station.com/

Have a good weekend. I think I'll go to sleep now...

Knit on...

Finished Objects and Works in Progress

Drumroll please...

Out of the depths of the Jurassic Period arises a monster...a shell as hard as stone that can reach up to 7 feet across...tentacles in which to find its prey...no eyes...at least not yet.

Meet Cthulu, the ammonite. This is Nautie in all its tentacled wonderment. Here's another shot:
I think he's too cute. I want a whole school of nautiloids running around. Of course, where I would put them is another whole issue. Nautie has been hanging out with the sock in progress. I'm getting there on the heel flap. It's just taking me longer than I thought it would, mainly because I don't like knitting this heel. Next time I decide to do a sock, it's going to be with thicker yarn so that I can be done with it faster. I say that now, but we all know how this will end...
I started the Voodoo wrist warmers yesterday while scanning and I got one of them done. Talk about a super fast and easy knit. I'm going to try to get the other one done today during lunch and breaks so that I can give them to Gwen on Friday. She tried it on before I left work yesterday and she said she loves the feel and fit of them. So of course I had to try them on too. I like them so much that I think I'll be making a pair for myself too. Don't you think they do a Star Trek nerd justice? And believe it or not, DBF and I got to ride a Segway scooter last night. It was pretty fun. I'll hopefully have a picture of that sometime if the owner of the scooter will email me my picture.

Knit on...

That Voodoo That You Do

I have finished Nautie. His name is Cthulu because he reminds me of that character with the tentacled mouth. He's pretty cute and much bigger than most people expected him to be. The sock is almost heeled now, so it's getting there. But to keep my mind off of the upcoming instep that must be made for the sock, I decided I needed a nice new project that was mindless knitting and very easy, and of course, nifty.

Enter Voodoo:

Gwen at work has been wanting a pair of wrist warmers for a while, so I'm making a pair now. I just looked down at my hands and realized that the dye on the yarn is bleeding onto my hands. I guess I better wash the stuff after I finish this. I'm using my Lamb's Pride worsted in Country Garden from Cherry Tree Hill. Brown Sheep with some dye...apparently dye that will run all over my fingers...blah.

I'm scanning at work today which means I can knit while scanning. I can't do anything else on this computer because it will crash it if I do, so knit away.

I'll get pictures of Nautie and the sock soon. And my Harlot pictures will be up soon too, I promise.

Knit on...

Knit In Public

Come on, it's fun. Admit it, you like to do it. No, I'm not talking about stalking, or eating five bricks of chocolate. I'm talking about World Wide Knit in Public Day on June 10. This is where thousands of knitters will grab their pointed sticks of power and plop down in the middle of a public place and proceed to attract stares and gawking while creating beautiful hand knits and crochet items. And if anyone stares at you too long, just let the sunlight gleam off of your metal pointed sticks. As the Panopticon says, I have two pointed sticks, you have two eyes, don't mess with someone who knits!

I'm planning on participating in WWKIP day. It sounds like fun. My local SnB group is going to get together and have a party to get our knit on. Should be fun.

I didn't do a bit of knitting last night. Nautie is still the one tentacled wonder and the sock is sitting right where I left it. The diamond shawl is still diamondy, but no new stitches. I did however cook and play poker last night. I went to the local food co-op in town and bought some organic flour to make some good homemade bread (honey wheat to be exact). I got home and my grandmother seems to be pissed that I have gone back to being a vegetarian. She seems to think that I can't get my nutritional needs met by eating only veggies. I beg to differ, so we'll see how this goes. Blah.

Anyways, I made some bean and barley soup and two huge loaves of honey wheat bread. The big one didn't quiet get cooked all the way, so it had to go back to the oven for a little bit. I figure DBF's loaf should be fine since it was about half the size of the big loaf. Between my grandmother, grandfather, and great-grandmother, I'll be lucky if I see any of the big loaf by the time I make it home tonight. Oh well. I guess I better get my butt to work.

Knit on...

Best Laid Plans

They rarely ever happen. Remember how I said I would go get my film developed that had my Harlot pictures on it? Yeah, that didn't happen. I thought I would finish the cuff of my sock this weekend...yeah, didn't happen. I thought I would get caught up on work today...computer virus screwed that up. So, tonight, I intend to cook bean and barley soup, bake some irish soda bread and enjoy an organic experience. We'll see if this happens.

Knitting update: Nautie is now seven tentacles away from being complete! He has one lonely tentacle on his face right now which looks more like a sexual organ than cute little tentacles, but hey, maybe he's a happy Nautie :oP He does look pretty cool though. Some of the geologists around here have been eyeballing the one tentacle wonder. I think they all have come to the conclusion that I am crazy. Perhaps I am...

The sock is almost to the hell, er heel part. Working on it.

The diamond shawl is, well, becoming more and more diamondy. Can't wait to see how it looks post blocking. It might take ten years to dry though unless the humidity calms down some here.

DBF and I went to see the DaVinci Code last night. It's pretty good. It's not as detailed as the book according to DBF (it's on my reading list, it really is...), but it was still an entertaining movie. It was looong though. 2 hours 50 minutes. Go see it though, that is unless it will shake your faith. If it does, then, well, sorry.

Well, I should get back to work now that I have a computer to work on. Blah.

Knit on...

Am I a Hippy?

OK, so yesterday I went to the Peace Fair here in town. I mainly went because Robyn had a ball winder I could use and I needed to wind up those skeins of sari silk that I picked up the other day. I also had one more hank of lambs pride worsted that needed to be wound up too. After an hour or so, I was done winding the yarn, I had purchased coffee soap and needles from Robyn and Sarah's booth, and I began to walk around the rest of the fair.

Oh, and on a side note, if they had a shirt in adult sizes, I so would have gotten it for DBF. It said Boobs, not Bombs. They only had it in little baby jumpers, but I think DBF needs one of these. Heck, I think I need one of these too!

There were booths for organic foods, locally grown produce, local activist groups, a giant flying white dove kite thing, natural face painting, local artwork, and organic food to chow down on. It was actually a pretty cool site. I really should have brought my camera. They also had live music and such. I found myself swept up in the festival. I went out immediately to the local food co-op and bought a bunch of organic foods, milk, bread, and grains. I am going to try to go lacto-vegetarian for a little while. It may help me lose weight too, who knows. Should be interesting either way. I'm not ready to go Vegan yet, that's for sure.

For those of you who know me, it's hard to believe that I used to be vegetarian a few years ago. After I quit playing softball, that lasted for about 2 years. For some reason I gave up on that and ended up going back to meat once I moved up here. Oh well. It will be hard, but I think I'd like to get back to vegetarianism.

OK, that's a bunch of non yarn ramblings! I picked up a set of 5 size 3 hand-made DPNs from Robyn yesterday. I'm going to make some wrist warmers with some superwash merino I have at the house. They should be pretty, so we'll see how they turn out. I have no pictures to post today aside from a Hippy. And the sock is now 5 inches long. I'm almost to the hell, I mean heel!

Knit on...

And here's a Hippy

Lace

Why is it that lace looks so God awful when you're knitting it up, but we know deep in our hearts that it is going to turn out to be beautiful in the end? I'm making a diamond shawl pattern from Lionbrand to use up the last three skeins of homespun that I had left over from the Furry Beast Olympic sweater. It's stash reduction and I also had a desire to knit lace for some reason. Probably the new Knit Picks catalogue has something to do with that. I have no fingering weight yarn or else I might have made some other lacy thing in a yarn much better to work with than homespun. At least it will turn those last three skeins into something aside from three balls of yarn sitting in my stash. I have no clue who will be getting this shawl. If you're curious, this is what it should look like after I block the hell out of the sucker.

I cast this thing on before camera club last night. It's a super easy lace pattern at least, so not too much trouble keeping track of rows. It's only a 10 row repeat pattern. Camera club was semi-interesting last night. The speaker talked about gypsy horses and how they were bred and the people who worked with them. They are pretty horses. They kinda look like miniature Clydsdales. The stories about the actual gypsy people too were interesting. The competition for this month was on Urban Decay. I didn't win squat this month, but I didn't really have that many pictures for Urban Decay either. DBF did win an honorable mention and first place in the advanced category. Considering he has to go up against professionals in that category, that was damn good! He's as good as a professional, it's just hard to make any money at photography when you try to start out on your own.

I worked on my sock some while waiting for the meeting to start and it's now at about 4 inches long. It progresses slowly, but that's OK. I should have done a worsted weight one to make myself feel like I'm accomplishing something. That's what the lace stole is for anyways. I'm going to try to get most of Nautie done today at lunch too. He's at 27 stitches on the needles now, so he's certainly getting there. I have found that he gets a little clunky to work with the bigger he gets since you have to stuff him as you go along. Oh well. Hopefully he turns out really cute.

I can't believe another week has flown by. I guess that's a good thing. Some weeks go by so slow and others just whip right on by. Oh well, that's life for you. I'm going to try to get my Harlot pictures developed this weekend so I can actually prove that I did see her, aside from being on her blog with my paradise fish sweater. I might have a sock or a shawl finished by this weekend too. Depends on how ambitious I get.

Knit on...

The sweater and the sock

This sounds like some sort of children's story. Some knitter out there should write one about the friendship between the sweater and the sock. Unfortunately, my sweater seems to be having a sleeve crisis and the sock is just stagnant. Here's the finished purple shirt thing:

The sweater isn't that bad, but I ran out of yarn for the sleeves, so I got little caplet sleeves instead of the much longer ones I had envisioned. Apparently one of my balls of ribbon yarn lied about it being 50 grams. Blah. Oh well, it still looks cute, but it does show off my horrendous farmer's tan from getting burned at Keeneland a few weeks ago. I am still peeling from that by the way and so is DBF. It also makes me realize that my arms are still huge. You'd think that after 5 years of not playing softball anymore that they would decrease some. Oh well. There they are in all their glowing whiteness. I hope I didn't cause someone to go blind.

Now for the sock. Here it is watching Curb Your Enthusiasm last night:

At least it's starting to come along a little bit. I ended up ripping it out after using size 2 needles on it the first time. Turns out I knit much looser on DPNs than I do on straight or circulars, so I have to go down a size to compensate. It's looking much better on the size 1 needles now. I do like how portable the thing is though. It's about 3 inches long now. Only another 4-5 inches or so before the dreaded first turned heel. I've been told to lock myself in my room, play some new age music, and pop open a bottle of wine for my first turned heal. Now I have mixed knitting and alcohol before and it usually doesn't turn out that wonderful, but hell, I'll try it again anyways.

Yippee for the Hippies! They won Amazing Race last night. Woot!

Tonight is camera club night. The category for this month is "urban decay". I pulled out three slides to enter, but they're really not all that exciting. Oh well. Maybe I'll be the only one who will enter again like last month :oP I'll take my sock with me to pass the time it takes for them to start the meeting. My friend Gail who goes there also knits and she's been working on an entrelac bag that is gorgeous. I need to try that sometime, but I think it's going to take some alcohol to get me through it.

Knit on...

Ugh

Ugh, I hate being sick. It's one of the worst feelings in the world. It's especially bad when you're so sick that you don't even feel like knitting. I did finish my purple shirt, but that was just before I started getting really sick.

I knit a few rows on my abandoned sock, thinking that knitting would take my mind off of how bad I was feeling. Didn't work out that way. I still felt like shit. Oh well.

I still feel rather crappy today, no pun intended, so this is a short post. I'll try to get pictures of the shirt tonight.

Knit on...

Maggie, I tried, I really did

Does anyone remember the horrible French Market Bag gone wrong that was supposed to be for my friend Maggie's birthday? If you don't, well, here's the felted bag in all its crapulence. Kinda resembles a cat bed here...
This weekend I did a lot of craft work since DBF had to work during the days. My first project was to try to turn this pile of felted crap into something semi-useful since none of my friends wanted this for a cat bed because it had some potential to be made into something else. Now, Maggie is obsessed with the 1920's, so I went into my grandmother's stash of buttons that belonged to her mother and I found some vintage 1920's plastic buttons. They're plain, but they're older, so they work. After a few stitches, some curses, and a puzzled look on my face, this is what I came up with...
Yes, I know it's still pretty darned crappy, but it's unique and I think Maggie will use it, if nothing else than for something for her cats to chew on. Now that I look at this picture I realize just how much lower that damn left side button is than the right side. Oh well. It's still crap, but now it's shapen crap. Here's a few more shots of the thing.

Yes, felted crap, I know, but there it is. It's got a use now. It can actually hold stuff. It will draw attention. Come to think of it, I think Maggie will enjoy this :oP

I also worked on the purple sweater thing this weekend and almost got it all finished. I'm working on the purple fur trim on the bottom of it, then I'll move on to the sleeve trim and be done. Here's a shot of what it looked like at the beginning of this weekend:

Here's the front of the shirt, minus the fur trim. Here's a close up of the front panel.
Ribbon yarn created a really interesting texture. It's just plain stockinette too, so not difficult at all. Here's the back in progress:

It's now done as well and is having some fur put on it. Should be interesting.

We had a mother's day get-together yesterday and had some family blow ups. Blah. Gotta love family! I ran away from the craziness that is my family and escaped to Renee's house (co-founder of the Anti-Craft FYI) and knit up a frenzie and played with her puppy dog and cracked up at her cute kid running around after the dog. It was a much needed escape. After that, I ran off to DBF's and we watched the Survivor finale. I wish Terri would have won, but I'm glad it wasn't Danielle who won. She really had no chance of winning though. Oh well. I gorged myself on pizza and then brownies later in the evening, so that makes up for the crappy finish to the show. Perhaps Amazing Race will work out the way I want it to. We shall see.

Blah, I should get to work. I have Pilates homework to do before class...what the hell? I really would like to drop this class now...

Knit on...

Cuteness Overload!

from:
http://stuffonmycat.com/

Too cute. I'm going to go puke now :oP

Just got back from staff day and came back with enough post-it notes to last me for another year. That and three t-shirts and a few toothbrushes. Gotta love free crap. Oh, and three plastic cups! Woot!

Staff Appreciation and a New Meme

Today is Staff Appreciation Day at the university. They like me, they really like me! Today is about goofing off, getting tons of free crap, and entering for contests left and right. I just have to survive my pilates class first...

So, I go to drop the pilates class because it's rather difficult, and lo and behold, I'm not able to drop it. I have to withdraw from the whole freaking university if I want to drop the darned course. Looks like I'll be working out more than I had originally planned. Oh well, it'll be good for me.

DBF starts a new job today. It's not glorious work, but it is a job. I won't be able to see him much this weekend because of the new job, so I guess I'll get in a lot of knitting. I might finish the purple shirt thing even. We'll see how ambitious I get.

And now for the new Meme:

A is for Age: 23
B is for Booze: Pina Coladas or Smirnoff
C is for Career: Geological Technician
D is for Dad's Name: Mark
E is for Essential Item to Bring to a Party: Booze
F is for Favorite Songs at the Moment: I Love Rock and Roll
G is for Goof-off Thing to Do: Paint by Number
H is for Hometown: Orlando, Florida
I is for Instrument You Play: Um, yeah...not so musically inclined
J is for Jam or Jelly you Like: Strawberry!
K is for Kids: None, 3 fish though
L is for Living Arrangement: Grandparents
M is for Mom's Name: Cindy
N is for Names of Good Friends: Maggie, Kim, Erica, and countless others
O is for Overnight Hospital Stays: ? Stupid virus that hit campus 2 years ago
P is for Pets: 3 fish
Q is for Quotes you Like: "Shutup, Mulder, I'm playing baseball!" -Scully, the X-Files
R is for Relationship Status: DBF, almost 3 years now
S is for Siblings: No blood siblings
T is for Tea: Green
U is for Unique Trait: I knit and play poker and Magic at the same time
V is for Vegetables You Love: Any but onions, tomatoes, and peppers
W is for Worst Traits: Worrisome
X is for X-rays You've Had: Ankle, teeth, head, hand, shin...damn softball
Y is for Yummy Food You Make: Chicken Parmesean Casserole, peanut butter cookies
Z is for Zodiac Sign: Scorpio

Have a great weekend and knit on!

Stash Reduction?

I am all about stash reduction right now. So will someone please explain to me why I bid on sari silk yarn on ebay? Damn ebay! I didn't think I'd win the auction...well, apparently I did. So, I just purchased 10 hanks of sari silk for 30 bucks. It's a really good deal on the silk, don't get me wrong, but why did I just do that? Did I need more yarn...no. Did I want more yarn...yes. Will I give some of the silk away...maybe. Erica, do you want/need some sari yarn. I really don't know what I'm going to do with 10 hanks. I'm thinking a purse needs to be made...It's been a while since I've made a bag. Here's what I bought:

Two of each basic color pattern you see up there. That's a lot of silk. I might be able to make some Christmas presents from this, who knows. I really didn't need more yarn. I guess today is my one day this month I'm allowed to buy yarn. So much for waiting for Magpie to open. I'll have to go to them next month.

Maybe I'll make the unbiased bag on knitty.com. We'll see how the yarn looks when it arrives in its nice little box. See, ebay is what happens when I have a break at work!

On the bright side, I finished the front panel of my purple shirt/sweater thing. It looks pretty good. It's going to be snug, but that's a good thing since I'm now taking a pilates class and my stomach is apparently going to firm up like you wouldn't believe. Well, I should probably get back to this:

Knit on...

Merinos and Books

Last night I had a very interesting experience. I told you that I was going to go see the Morehouse Farm prize-winning Merino rams. I got to the bookstore early and shopped around some. I needed a new book or four. Remember me saying I wanted to get the Merino book and the Inspired Cable Knits? Well, I got both, plus Mason-Dixon Knitting. All three books are gorgeous and I can't wait to start making some stuff out of them all. I think my first project is going to be the mittens from the Merino book.
If you only get to choose one of these books, choose the Merino Knits. They have classic designs in there that can be embellished in many ways. The lacework is gorgeous, the mittens are adorable, and the wool is incredible. I also got another book last night:
Yep, I have to take the GRE. I've been out of college for over a year now and I don't remember squat when it comes to math or chemistry. Guess I better brush up a little bit on that. Now for the moment I know you all have been waiting for! I present to you, the Sheep!
They arrived in a plain metal sheep pen. They really are inside of there! I had to get one really quick before they started to bring the guys out.
The first one started to come out. All the children who were there were just fascinated. OK, so all of the knitters who were there were more excited than the kids, but hey, these are MERINOS!! Gorgeous Sheep.
This is the book's author, Margrit Lohrer, leading the two fiesty men into the pen where they would model for children and knitters alike. I just kept getting closer and closer. I think I was about to go int0 the pen with the sheep.
Margrit was very nice and showed how the fleece under the rough outer coating was just a brilliant white. It's hard to tell from this picture, but it really was a beautiful white fleece. He'll make some good yarn come shearing time!
And here are Margrit and her husband Albrecht Pichler. He was also very nice. They had to be nice to let a strange knitter come around and take tons of pictures of their rams.
Of course I had to get a picture of me petting one of the rams. DBF, can I have a sheep? Just look at that face!
Mr. Black Sheep was putting on a show for everyone. He was a very deep chocolate color under the outer layer. Margrit said that the sun bleaches their coats and so the true color is always underneath the outer scruff. Oh, and one ram will produce enough wool to be made into enough yarn for four adult sweaters. That's a lot of wool! The Ewes are smaller, so they don't produce quite that much. The rams also have the beautiful horns while the ewes will not. I had shunned spinning until I found out that they also sell the roving on their website! I might have to try again...who knows.
The sheep knew who their owner was, that's for sure. Margrit was pretty popular last night. Between kids and knitters, they drew a pretty good crowd. If you look in the background, you can see that she brought some samples of her work with her as well as some of the gorgeous, sqeezably soft yarn that comes from these sheep.

They brought the most gorgeous varigated yarns with them last night. I think I spent about half of the time squeezing the yarn. I could roll around in the stuff it's so soft. The mittens were just adorable and the lace stole she made is gorgeous. She has the pattern for that in the book. They are wonderful people, they have wonderful yarn, and they produced a gorgeous book. It's called Morehouse Farm Merino Knits. Go out and get it if you haven't picked it up already. You can find it here: http://www.morehousefarm.com/MerinoKnits/RamTour/

You can also buy their yarns here: http://www.morehousefarm.com/KnittingEssentials/Yarn/

Go visit their site. If you scroll your mouse over the ram on the Ram Tour page, he'll bah for you :oP

Oh, I also snagged a picture of the summer shirt I've been working on.

I was so excited about sheep, I almost forgot about the poor thing. It's coming along. I've been working on some cross-stitch as well, so not as much time for knitting it. It'll get there though. Well, I should get to work now.

Knit on...

Merino Ram-in-a-Van

Yes, I am going to go see the Ram-in-a-Van tonight. He is in town and he must be petted by me. I have this obsession with merino wool anyways, so what better way to feed my obsession than to go and pet a Merino Ram. It's all in celebration of a book anyways. Time for the Stitch and Bitchers to have a field trip. It will be followed by cheesecake :o)

Here's the cutie:
The Ram is the sponsor of this book:

Let me just say now, I want this book. I still haven't picked up Inspired Cable Knits, but I still want this book. Depending on what they have there tonight, I might come home with a new item.

Tomorrow: My pictures of the field trip!

Knit on...

A Weekend of Magic and Disk Golf

This weekend was primarilly about Magic: the Gathering. Friday was the release of the new set called Dissension. I'm not sure how I feel about this set yet from what I've seen. Looks like there's the potential for some powerful stuff, but I'll have to do some deck building to find out. Friday we played for hours in a tournament and I ended up winning four packs of cards. All crap rares in the packs...blah. Saturday we played in another event and I won another four packs...all crap rares again...blah. I did meet another knitter on Saturday though. She didn't play Magic, but she was there knitting with some nice Moda Dea yarn in the same color as my lavender shirt-to-be. She was also cross stitching some cute care bears.

After the tournament on Saturday, DBF and I decided to go play some disk golf while the sun was still out. It was fun and I totally sucked at it! At least it was fun. I did however throw my disk into a creek that had about six inches of mud on the bottom of it. I tried to get in to get it, but I chickened out. DBF, being the great man that he is, hiked in there and got it out without falling into the creek. Next time, I need to bring the video camera!

Sunday was about being lazy. We lounged around after church and caught up on the Amazing Race and South Park. We also watched Kingdom of Heaven which was all right. It didn't really keep my interest all that much. We did go to Michael's and I wanted to use my 40% off coupon on a cross-stitch and sure enough, they put the dumb things on sale, so no 40% off for me. I did get 10 bucks off of it at least. DBF used the coupon for a mother's day gift though, so at least the coupon didn't go to waste. Here's what I bought:

You don't see many super-detailed dragon cross-stitch patterns out there, but this one caught my eye. I have to finish the other dragon I'm working on first so that I can start working on this one. It should only take me 10 years to finish this one...

Well, time to get to work.

Knit on...

Of Carpal Tunnel and Magic Cards

Yes, I have carpal tunnel syndrome. Stupid numb hand... It's only in my right hand and it comes from using the mouse on the computer too much. Blah. Oh well. Hopefully I won't have to start knitting like this:
Speaking of knitting, here's an update! I have about 12 inches done now on the new sweater. Nope, this shirt doesn't have a name like the last one. It's just the purple blob right now. Here it is in all its glory.
DBF's mom gave me some flowers the other day and I decided they needed to adorn the office since I really have no place to keep them at home.
Very pretty flowers. They shall brighten up the dreary office. And finally...yes...Magic! Today is the official release of the new set, Dissension. DBF and I will be filling our weekend with lots and lots of Magic playing. We got our cards in yesterday and opened up a box together. We're saving some so we can play in some sealed tournaments with some of our friends.
Yes, a case of Magic cards. They are ours, all ours! And if you have ever wanted to know what pure bliss looks like...here I am...
Have a good weekend and I'll report on the tournament scene come Monday!

A Few Quizzes

Can you tell it's Friday??

You Were A Lion

You have a lethal combination of strength and energy. You have strong family ties, and close friends are like family to you.

What Animal Were You In a Past Life?

You Are The Magician

You are powerful and wise - beyond what anyone can see. Deeply complex, you have the resources to connect to the spiritual and material world. You posses the knowledge to manipulate your life and the lives around you. You also have a great healing power, should you choose to use it. Your fortune: You have unhidden powers that you have yet to tap into. Soon, you will better understand how to use your intellect and intuition. Believe it or now, you will discover how you can manipulate yourself and others for good. You are at the beginning of a path of spiritual enlightenment.

What Tarot Card Are You?

You Are a Peacemaker Soul

You strive to please others and compromise anyway you can. War or conflict bothers you, and you would do anything to keep the peace. You are a good mediator and a true negotiator. Sometimes you do too much, trying so hard to make people happy. While you keep the peace, you tend to be secretly judgmental. You lose respect for people who don't like to both give and take. On the flip side, you've got a graet sense of humor and wit. You're always dimplomatic and able to give good advice. Souls you are most compatible with: Warrior Soul, Hunter Soul and Visionary Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

The Wednesday Report

Ah, Wednesday. The hump day. The middle of the week. The new poker night?



Yep, that's right. Once again I played poker this week. Except last night it was for real money. I got crappy cards. I tried to play my crappy cards...um yeah. I went out quick. DBF finished 4th, just one shy of the money. At least he was close. He did win the first tournament on Tuesday, so we have more poker chips! His case is nicer than the chips that I won the one time I won a tournament over there. So far, he's won a hat, a poker table, and now a set of chips. We'll have a fully furnished game room, that's for sure. It's pretty cool.

Knitting update...I have 10 inches done on the front panel of the new shirt. Nautie is still adorning my desk, half way done. The sock has been abandoned at the house and sleeps in the darkness that is the closet. Poor sock. I solemnly swear that I will finish this shirt, finish Nautie, then finish the blasted pair of socks.

Oh, I got to cut slabs of rock yesterday at work. It's just fun to do, but quite messy. Diamond saws are cool. You won't lose a finger if the rock slips, but it will feel like a rugburn. It cuts rock. It cuts rock, but not your fingers...how cool is that? The project I've been working on at work went public on Monday. I saw it on the evening news. We'll see if we get it or if it will go to another state. Eventually, everyone will get one of these power plants if it works the way everyone thinks it will work. That'll just be cool. Google FutureGen and you can see what all it's about. I think the US Department of Energy has something about it there.

Well, I should get some stuff done. DBF and I are going to lunch today and we're getting new Magic cards in. I can't wait to see what is going on with this new set! Playtest time!

Knit on...

Stitching, Bitching, and All-In

Last night I went to my local Stitch and Bitch and had the nirvana on a plate that is Mochachino cheesecake. It was just as delicious as I remembered it to be from two weeks ago. Last week they were missing the cheesy, chocolate delight, but this week it was back. Ah, bliss from a dessert. I continued working on my latest shirt creation out of the ribbon yarn that I bought for myself while picking out a skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky for the Harlot. They only had five balls of this ribbon yarn left, so I snagged it up, but my fears were realized last night when only 8 inches of the sweater's front panel was done after one ball. That means at the most, the sweater will be 20 inches long if I use 2.5 balls of yarn on each side. So, I have come up with a solution. I found two skeins of a furry yarn that was given to me a few weeks ago at SnB and it's just the right shade of purple to add a contrast to the yarn. It will make a good edging for this shirt. Here's the schematic for what I have guessed at so far:

That's about the color combination too. Hopefully this will turn out good. Time will tell, and pictures will show it for sure.

After I ran out of yarn at SnB last night, I went over to play poker at the league that DBF and I are in. I normally just go on Thursday, but since I got done with SnB so early, I ran over there. I got in a side table and dominated for a little while. I must have gone on tilt, because before long, I was down to just five chips. I started making a comeback until I went all-in with A 9. I was called by the chip leader who had K 10. I was winning the race until a 10 came up on the river. Damn river! Oh well. I dealt the rest of the tournament for the last two people and the guy who put me out finished second.

Tonight is Amazing Race night. Go hippies! Before I get to watch that tonight, I'm meeting my friend Laura for dinner and to catch up with things. I haven't seen her in a while. We've both just been busy. Oh well.

I did not see Bartholomew Bat today. I'm not sure if he's hanging out somewhere else or if he's gone. I hope he caught a bunch of bugs. I suppose I should get some work done now.

Knit on...

Whoo-Hoo, I'm on THE blog!

I'm so excited! I made it on the Harlot's blog in my paradise fish sweater! Go here to see: http://yarnharlot.ca/blog/

I'm Leah by the way. My name is out...

We have a new pet at work

Meet Bartholomew Bat. You can call him BB or Bart for short. He's a little brown bat and he has chosen to reside in our office building. If he's still here tomorrow, I'll get some actual pictures of the little guy. He's really tiny too. Most of the women freaked out until we told them that bats eat mosquitos and other bad bugs, but Kathy and I were just fascinated with the little insectivore.

If the janitor keeps bugging the guy, I hope he makes a face like this:

Oh, I also added a counter to the blog. I'm curious how many people actually read this pile of craziness :oP

Knit on...